Scientists from the Space Research Institute (SRI) carried out a study of dynamic processes in the active regions of the Sun, which made it possible to establish a connection between the characteristics of the vertical electric current and the magnetic field in these regions with powerful flares. ) of the Russian Academy of Sciences and MIPT, reports the MIPT magazine “For Science” on June 4.
The results of the research, presented in the article “Evolution of the characteristics of the vertical electric current and the magnetic field in the active regions of the Sun and their relationship with powerful flares”, published in the journal Geomagnetism and Aeronomy, will contribute to the development of methods. to predict solar activity.
The active regions of the Sun are those places in the atmosphere of our star where a strong magnetic field emerges beneath the photosphere in the form of pores and spots, from which ultraviolet and X-ray radiation emanates with greater intensity than other regions of the solar corona. . .
The manifestations of solar activity in these regions are the heating of coronal loops, coronal jets and solar flares, which makes their study interesting not only from the point of view of fundamental space plasma research, but also It also has applied importance for predicting space weather.
The magnetic field plays a key role in the processes that occur in active regions. During solar flares, the magnetic energy stored in these areas is released due to the release of magnetic fluxes and their movement relative to each other due to local plasma flows.
The free magnetic energy released during flares is associated with electric currents, so the study of electric currents in active regions is as important as the study of magnetic fields.
The first author of the study, junior researcher at the Laboratory of Acceleration Processes in Space Plasma and Space Meteorology of the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Alena Nechaeva, told about the problems she solved:
“The goal of our work is to understand how the active regions of the Sun develop. These are areas with an increased magnetic field and most of the dynamic processes take place there. This topic has been of interest to scientists for a long time, but so far our instrumental data is very limited, so we have to use indirect methods. Research into how magnetic fields and electric currents develop gives us insight into the physics underlying all processes and allows us to understand how active regions develop, what happens during their formation, how they behave in the active phase and during the disintegration stages. “Ultimately, this will give us the ability to generate more accurate and timely forecasts of solar weather, solar flares and emissions.”.
In their work, the researchers analyzed, from photospheric vector magnetograms, the evolution in three active regions of some characteristics of the magnetic field and the vertical electric current, which previously caused “M” class solar flares (medium, which cause brief interruptions in communications in the polar regions and sometimes small magnetic storms) and “X” (the largest can cause radio interference throughout the planet, as well as long-lasting magnetic storms).
The analysis was performed using data obtained in two-hour increments, from the appearance of the flares in the eastern hemisphere, through the solar disk (as the Sun rotates) and until their disappearance in the west.
Principal investigator of the Laboratory of Acceleration Processes in Space Plasma and Space Climate of the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, professor at MIPT and second author of the study, Ivan Zimovets, explained what exactly happens on the Sun during powerful flames:
“In recent years, we have often heard about powerful magnetic storms on Earth, which are the result of large solar flares and the accompanying coronal mass ejections. These are two interrelated phenomena: flares and emissions that disturb the interplanetary medium, the Earth’s magnetic field, and cause magnetic storms. The flares themselves are short-lived episodes of energy release in the solar corona, in the chromosphere. As a result, charged particles receive a significant acceleration, due to which increased fluxes of ionizing electromagnetic radiation are released into space: X-rays, gamma rays, ultraviolet. This flow interacts with the Earth’s atmosphere, with the ionosphere.”.
Solar radiation fluxes cause increased ionization and an increase in radiation fluxes in the ionosphere, which can significantly affect astronauts, and when entering outer space, these particles can cause very significant damage to health.
To avoid this situation, it is necessary to have a short-term forecast of the appearance of this type of outbreak. However, although work has been going on in this direction for a long time, there is still no precise and operational forecast.
“Given the relevance of this problem, especially for astronautics, our scientific group has completed work that can be divided into two parts. In the first part, we tried to consider some of the characteristics of the active regions of the Sun where flares form. During our observations, we were able to discover some pretty unique ones that no one had paid attention to before us. “In particular, we have determined a very specific indicator associated with electrical currents on the surface of the Sun: how much energy they contain (which is then released during flares).”– said Ivan Zimovets.
He highlighted that the goal of the study was to look for characteristic markers that occur before powerful outbreaks. To do this, the scientists considered about a dozen different parameters of the magnetic field and currents in time intervals of several days, during which the evolution of the active regions occurs.
They recorded several quantitative characteristics of the magnetic field and currents and identified existing patterns in their dynamics. Zimovets added that this painstaking work has borne fruit: scientists have confirmed some already known facts, for example, that powerful flares occur when the integral magnetic flux in the active region increases rapidly up to a certain threshold value.
“But to more accurately determine the generation intervals of powerful flashes, we need several characteristics and we have established a new one for the electric current. Without using abstruse words, in our work we used a specific metric of electrical current, and our observations confirmed that before flares this metric is limited to a rather narrow range of values. This gives us another necessary factor.””Ivan Zimovets commented on the results.
These include the establishment of certain patterns in the behavior of the considered features in terms of the evolution of active regions, as well as their transition to the regime of generating powerful flares.
The second part of the study consisted of testing one of the new models for predicting powerful solar flares, based on observations of both the photosphere and the layers of the solar atmosphere located above it, where flares that are not visible in the sky usually originate. the optical range of the spectrum. Therefore, to understand the processes in the solar corona, specific methods and approaches are required.
The scientists chose the extrapolation method to reconstruct the magnetic field and electric currents in three-dimensional volumes of the corona. Long-term reconstruction of magnetic fields and calculation of magnetic field energy in three evolving active regions made it possible to evaluate the accuracy of the considered forecast model and show its promise.
Therefore, the results of the study can be used to more accurately predict solar flares.
Source: Rossa Primavera
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